Written in Red
by EmmaGrey
Summary: A woman with a shady past is brought into S.H.I.E.L.D. She is meant to become part of the Avenger Initiative, but has a hard time being part of a time. When a new threat comes into the world, will she be able to hold her ground and stand by the team or will she run? Can she learn to control her abilities before she misses out love?
1. Chapter 1

_A/N- I don't own the avengers, marvel comics, or any of the known characters in this story. It would be awesome if I was Stan Lee, but alas that is not how it worked out. _

"I have no desire to come work for you, Mr. Fury" Ariana Winters stated. She never flinched underneath the man's stare. He was not the first person to offer her a job, but he was the only one who as of yet hadn't tried to "force" her into it.

"Your country needs you Ms. Winters. I am sure you saw the news coverage on New York." replied Fury.

"Of course, an alien invasion even gets coverage way out here in BFE. It seemed to me that 'my country' had more than adequate help. After all isn't that what the Avengers are for?"

"I would like you to join the Avenger Initiative."

She could not help but laugh when he stated this. She took in her surroundings, the one room cabin with a cot in the corner, and said "I don't do teams. Didn't any of research tell you that I am dangerous?"

"I believe we can help you control your abilities." He paused "After all Dr. Banner managed to successfully control his alter ego during the invasion."

"Fine" Ari said, She was not able to turn down a chance to be normal "I will come with you, but only for a month. If at the end of that time I am still unable to regulate these abilities, as you called them, you and your people will let me disappear like I have been trying to do."

"Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D.. Pack your bag we leave for New York in an hour." With that he swept out of the room. His trench coat flaring out behind him like a bad omen.

Ari collapsed into the chair behind her, all her energy fading out of her. Her hands shaking with the fear she had managed to suppress during the conversation. In the aftermath she wondered what she had just gotten herself into. And later as two agents came to collect her and her bag, she wonder just how many people she would hurt this time around.


	2. Chapter 2

"What are we looking at here, Director?" Agent Romanov asked Her eyes flitting over a file that seemed to just be mess of incidents that could tenuously attached back to one woman. Everyone else in the room had the same file in front of them. Tony Stark and Thor were too busy bickering in the corner to be paying attention. Agent Barton, she notice with an indulgent smile, was inspecting his bow. Only Captain Rodgers and Doctor Banner were flipping through the file.

"What you are looking at, Romanov, is a person with strong abilities in Telekinesis and Telepathy." Fury stated. Stark glanced in his direction "A mind reader?!" he snorted in disbelief.

Bruce on the other hand no trouble believing that piece of information, and choose to question the file

"Director. It seems to me that this woman eluded capture for many years, at the result of many deaths, are you suggesting we attempt to capture her?"

"No, Dr. Banner. I have already brought her here." He watched as all five heads looked in his direction. "She has agreed to a short term contract with S.H.I.E.L.D., during which time we are going to help her subdue the cons of her abilities."

"Not to question your judgment, Sir," Steve started before he was interrupted by Tony.

"...You are actually expecting us to believe that she kills people with her mind? And upon believing that, you expect us work with her?"

" I don't expect you to do anything Mr. Stark. I am hoping that Dr. Banner will help her." He turned his attention back to the unassuming scientist in the corner "She has agreed to this, and if you read her record she only loses control when she feels threatened. So what do you say Banner?"

Bruce took off his glasses and deadpanned "Sure, the worse that can happen is I hulk out and kill her."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that" Clint muttered in the corner, loud enough for only Natasha to hear him.

Ariana paced the lab they had placed in. She had been in there long enough to read the labels on all the beakers that covered the counter. She had already halfheartedly attempted to break into the computer, only to be told by a smooth British voice that she did not have clearance. So now as she waited she just walked up and down the white tile floor, and wrote a story in her head to alleviate the pressing boredom. So lost in her own thoughts was she that she failed to hear the door open or the approaching footsteps behind her. So it was no surprise when she jumped out of her own skin and knocked over a tray of beakers unto the floor, at the sound of a voice.

"I did not mean to scare you" The man with kind brown eyes said, "I thought you would be aware of my presence."

From her position on the floor, where she was attempting to pick up the pieces of glass, she saw his lips twist into a self depreciating smile.

"You don't have to clean those up, They were just empty beakers, I'll get a broom later." He held out a hand to help her back unto her feet. Cautiously Ari placed her gloved covered hand into his, and allowed him to lead her over to a stool.

"Now that we were are all settled, I should introduce myself. I am Dr. Banner, I have been assigned to you."

"Ah, so you are my new baby sitter. I am Ariana." She smiled slightly "You are the Hulk, right?"

"Shouldn't you already know the answer to that?" he asked his fingers folding together underneath his chin.

"Oh.. I guess I should, but I actively try to stay out of people's minds." She stated, the smile melting completely off of her face. He watched as she began to fidget with the Bunsen burner sitting next to her on the counter.

"So you can control it?" He asked

"I can keep myself out of minds, yes." She paused "Unless I touch the person. Hence the gloves" She held up her hands to show him the long black leather gloves she wore.

"What makes you lose control, fear or...?"

"It is long list, but the most basic thing is I am what they call a empathic telepath. I don't just hear people's thoughts. I feel all of their emotions as well. And, well, in a crowd of people I cannot sort through the emotions to find my own, and then I lose myself."

"How so?" At the glare Ari gave him, Banner continued "If I am going to help you, I need to know what it is like?"

"Fine, I am sure there is a file on it somewhere" she muttered, "But whatever, I am not really sure what happens, I call it a panic attack. My mind just takes over and starts silencing the voices. Of course, though, it does not block them out it kills them."

"Do you remember what you have done afterwards?" he asks. She can see the similar pain in his eyes. She just nods yes. Very carefully Banner reaches across the counter distance to lightly hold her hand, the contact only last a second, but even through the gloves she can feel the understanding.

"Do you know why Fury wants your capabilities so badly, that he would take the risks?" He asks.

"Yes. He wants to weaponize the side benefits of my abilities."

"And what are those?" He asks. She can feel the strength of his curiousity even through her carefully constructed walls.

So she smiles and says "Why Doctor Banner I have been trying to figure that out for years. It seems to me that there are no pros to this curse."


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N I don't own Marvel or the Avengers. This chapter is mostly everyone's reaction to Ariana. Well Mostly everyone. There is also some shameless Pepperony Fluff. _

Agent Barton sat in what the team had dubbed his nest. Every member of the team had a place to stay in the Stark Tower, but Barton was rarely in his room. Preferring instead to keep an eye on things from the eaves. He thought over what had happened today, and felt uneasy. He knew he was the only member of the team who had seen Ariana Winters in action. It took a lot to make him shutter, but as he thought of that day long ago he could not stop the impulse.

He had been part of a recon team for one of the mercenary groups who found out about a girl who could read minds. The group decided to capture her, in hopes that they could use her powers to infiltrate a rival group. After all, if they were unable to hide their secrets, they would be easily taken over. They had tracked her down to London, and had managed to corner her in the Underground tube system. He had stayed up top on the steps, until he heard the screaming start. By the time he had made it down the steps, she was gone. His entire team was dead on the floor. Later the scientist had said that each of their hearts had burst. So he watched from the lab from the eaves, waiting for the girl to make one move against Banner, and then he would put an arrow into her eye.

AAAAAAAAAA

Steve sat in the command room long after everyone left. He was pouring over the file that Fury had given them. Almost every page was an incident in which someone or many people had died at the hands of the person Fury seemed so keen on making part of the team. He thought about Agent Romanov claiming her file was filled with red, and wonder if it had as much red as this girls. At least Romanov had been doing a job, whether it was for right or wrong. This girl it seemed had killed many innocent bystanders. He knew Banner as the Hulk was much better at controlling himself, but there were still quite a few incidents in which the other team members that to subdue him. Steve worried that with this girl, that even if she learned to control it, the incidents would get them all killed. Hours later he left the briefing room. He walked past the now empty lab, and wonder what else Banner had learned about her.

AAAAAAAAAAA

"Pepper" Tony called from the living room of their Penthouse. "I am back". He shuffled some papers he had in his hands as he read over the new design ideas for his suit.

"Tony" Pepper's voice called out to him. He glanced over the papers to see her standing in the door way of the bedroom. The black negligee she was wearing making his mouth water.

"Perhaps you like to put those papers down, and join me in the bedroom." She said Laughing as he threw them behind his back. He was across the room in record time to attach his lips to her neck, and his hands on her hips as he backed in the room, and unto the bed. It was only a matter of time before he forgot all about the suit designs.

AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Bruce paced his suite in the Stark Tower thinking of Ariana and what he had learned that day. He had thought to help her the same way he had helped himself, Total immersion. He remained angry all the time, so that angry was his normal. His plan was to slowly immerse her into the thought and emotions of others until she was desensitized. She had told him that she had tried similar things in the past, and that they always ended badly. He knew he had to find her an anchor of some sort to give her the ability to know herself when lost amongst all the emotional wreckage of others. He just had no idea how to help the girl who trusted no one. How did you help someone who was determined that it would all lead to failure? And even if she managed to gain some control, how could they ever think that it would last? Was he even willing to risk the lives of people he cared about for an emotionally unstable woman?

AAAAAAAAAAAA

Alone in the room, which was in fact more like a prison cell, that she had been given at the S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters Ari considered packing her bags and leaving. It was obvious that she was not welcome within Stark Towers. Tony Stark having told Director Fury, after her meeting with Dr. Banner, that she was not to be back in his building. That if Banner wanted to help her, he would have to do it else where. His arrogant brown eyes looking at her before turning away with disinterest. She had allowed herself a quick peek into his mind, reading only the surface thought that she was nothing more than a charlatan. Ari generally found it easier to be around people who believed her to be a fake, as they had desire to use her for anything and that she always knew what they were thinking without having to listen to their thoughts. She had backed out of his mind, though, as his emotions had started clouding her thoughts. He was restless and edgy, with a hint of dark bitterness masked behind something she did not give herself time to define. She had no desire to stay where she was not wanted, when she herself did not want to be there. Just as she started piling clothes into her bags her cell door slid opened.

A woman in a black cat suit walked in. Her hair was a short messy red, and her eyes were empty of emotion.

"Are you going somewhere?" the woman asked with a bored tone. Instead of waiting for an answer the she just continued speaking "I suppose you are running away, already giving up."

"What is it to you?" Ari asked.

"Nothing." The woman said as she paced around the tiny cell, picking up random things. "If you want to run away that is your business, I won't stop you."

"Good" Ari snapped, feeling more than slightly annoyed with this disaffected woman.

"It would seem that you really have no desire to try to blot out all those deaths you caused."

"Who are you?" Ari asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Agent Romanov" the woman replied walking back towards the door.

"What do you want from me?"

"Nothing, I have no need for people who don't try to right their wrongs. For people who give up with out any effort." Agent Romanov gave one last measuring glance at Ari before walking out the door. Ari stared at the shut door realizing that Romanov had left it unlocked. Her heart was pounding with emotions that were purely hers. She began throwing her clothes back into the set of drawers that occupied the room, because she be damned if she would allow that woman the satisfaction of being right. She had no idea that Agent Romanov stood in thee hallway smiling a satisfied smile, as she had successfully manipulated the young woman inside.


End file.
